Doctor Who *Spoilers Abound! We've lost Containment*

Speaking of references in the episode, the bar where Clara worked was called The Rose and Crown. The word "rose" of course has a strong connection to The Doctor (similar to "pond"). I was wondering if Crown had any possible meaning. I googled it, and only came up with a comic story with the 10th doctor, and an audioplay with the 5th doctor as stories with "crown" in the title.

CaptainCrowbar wrote:

For those not familiar with ancient Whovian history:

Spoiler:

The bit at the end, where the Doctor thought there was something vaguely familiar about all this but couldn't bring it to mind, was a reference to two Second Doctor adventures. The Great Intelligence was the enemy in "The Abominable Snowmen" (in which the GI tried to conquer the world with snowmen ... robot yeti, in fact) and "The Web of Fear" (in which the London Underground was the route for a second - or, as we now know, actually third - conquest attempt).

"The Web of Fear" was also the story that first introduced Brigadier (then Colonel) Lethbridge-Stewart. Both stories are now almost completely lost (one episode of each survives).

Sad that many of the Who adventures I remember from my childhood are now lost and will never be seen again

Here is hoping the writers keep adding even more callbacks to classic Who in future stories for the 50th anniversary. I like the possibility that people can dig into current stories and connect to classic Who. Perhaps even have a richer Who experience because of it.

For instance, they started to include Matt's face into the opening credits; something that was common in classic Who.

I really enjoyed the Christmas episode and was really impressed by the writing in

Spoiler:

The one word test scene.

Amazing to see a writer create a constraint like that and make it pay off.

I finally got around to watching it. It was most excellent, and I can't wait for new episodes!

I'm sad that I have to wait till April. I was under the impression that episodes would start back up after the Christmas special. Oh well... patience I guess.

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations? Is the idea that his personality has changed so much after losing Amy and Rory that the Tardis responded to that just like it responds to a regeneration?

Yonder wrote:

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations? Is the idea that his personality has changed so much after losing Amy and Rory that the Tardis responded to that just like it responds to a regeneration?

Yeah I forgot about that. They just kind of threw a new Tardis at us without a whole lot of explanation as to why. What's up with that.

Radical Ans wrote:
Yonder wrote:

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations? Is the idea that his personality has changed so much after losing Amy and Rory that the Tardis responded to that just like it responds to a regeneration?

Yeah I forgot about that. They just kind of threw a new Tardis at us without a whole lot of explanation as to why. What's up with that.

That's an interesting thought... I had just assumed it was due to major personnel trauma but they didn't do it when Rose left... sooo I don't know.

manta173 wrote:

I had just assumed it was due to major personnel trauma but they didn't do it when Rose left... sooo I don't know.

Well, Rose left then he had to go burn a star to make a phone call, and then ended up with a bride in the Tardis, so not a lot of time to clean up. Going from four to one suddenly, I guess it was high time for some emotional remodeling.

Yonder wrote:

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations?

I'm wracking my brain here, but it has been many years since I've watched the old episodes in order. The Tardis changes were never as significant as we've seen since the restart of the show, but I remember the cylinder in the middle of the console changing at one point without any explanation. It may have been when it switched to Peter Davison from Tom Baker though.

They changed the console a bunch, and usually didn't give it much explanation. Most of the time, it was just a variation on the "white room with roundels all over the wall," but this one time, at band camp...

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/sc2yx.jpg?1)

"Oh, I see you've done up the place. I don't like it!"

Yonder wrote:

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations? Is the idea that his personality has changed so much after losing Amy and Rory that the Tardis responded to that just like it responds to a regeneration?

In the classic series they redesigned the control room every now and then, usually but not always when a new Doctor took over, and usually without comment. The one time I can remember when the redesign was explicitly referred to was in one of the Jon Pertwee stories, I think "The Time Monster", where Jo Grant commented on the redecorated control room when they entered the TARDIS, and the Doctor confirmed that he'd changed it.

The wooden control room (seen above in Walken's post) wasn't a change to the main control room, it was a separate secondary control room that Tom Baker's Doctor switched to when he felt like a change of scene.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it, did anyone else immediately want to go listen to this directly after watching the Christmas episode?

They put a really similar melody in the score for the Christmas episode.

Cross posted from IRC

About 6 months ago, in a drunken state, I wrote "BAD WOLF" in crayon on the sidewalk in front of my friends house. He just texted and informed me that it's still there even through all the rain, snow, salt, etc.

Yonder wrote:

Oh, I had a question for those of you who have watched the older shows. Has the Tardis ever changed form mid-doctor like this before, or just during regenerations? Is the idea that his personality has changed so much after losing Amy and Rory that the Tardis responded to that just like it responds to a regeneration?

The control rooms tend to reflect The Doctor, and new control rooms are created (with old ones being archived) seemingly in an arbitrary fashion. From the control room change and his demeanor I got the feeling that he was stuck in a state of "leave me the hell alone" for a good long time. A good long time for The Doctor is usually a really long time.

By the way, I notice he said he's 1,000 years old in this episode. I took that as yet another time where he must be approximating or still doesn't know how old he really is.

LouZiffer wrote:

By the way, I notice he said he's 1,000 years old in this episode. I took that as yet another time where he must be approximating or still doesn't know how old he really is.

I'm pretty sure he's 2,000 years old. In "A Town Called Mercy," he said he was 1,200.

Wasn't he 900/1100 in Impossible Astronaut, start/end of S6?

Radical Ans wrote:

Cross posted from IRC

About 6 months ago, in a drunken state, I wrote "BAD WOLF" in crayon on the sidewalk in front of my friends house. He just texted and informed me that it's still there even through all the rain, snow, salt, etc.

Someone spray painted "BAD WOLF" outside our apartment complex. It's still there even after the staff tried to clean it up.

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

liquid wrote:

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

Huh?

River is

Spoiler:

part-TimeLord because she was conceived in the Tardis.

I don't think he can do that for anyone.

liquid wrote:

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

Spoiler:

River is part Time Lord, so it'll likely only work on her.

According to wiki,

Spoiler:

he can transfer energy to other "being" but it comes at a high price: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regener...

LouZiffer wrote:

By the way, I notice he said he's 1,000 years old in this episode. I took that as yet another time where he must be approximating or still doesn't know how old he really is.

I think the quote went something more like "A thousand years of saving the universe. And you know what? The universe doesn't care."

He wasn't saying his exact age, only making a generalization that he'd been on these sorts of adventures for over a 1000 years.

liquid wrote:

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

Spoiler:

Remember that River gave him all of her regeneration. So there's a bit of a special bond there.

Yeah. I'm not that good at remembering all the details and small things like that.

Stele wrote:

Wasn't he 900/1100 in Impossible Astronaut, start/end of S6? :?

Oh god, you made me post a link to this.
There's another one somewhere that tries to explain the age discrepancies away by calculating the differences between the length of a year on Earth and Gallifrey, and positing that the Doctor uses whichever suits his fancy.

Look, I was really bored one night, and read it, OK?

The only thing that matters, in my view, is what Moffat has to say, which is in box quote in the linked article. The Doctor doesn't know.

I just got caught up today, including the Christmas episode. It just keeps getting better and better...

liquid wrote:

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

Spoiler:

The real question is why he didn't catch her in the Tardis like he's done before.

Man, nobody got the "Something There" melody similarities except me? I am weird.

Yonder wrote:
liquid wrote:

About the Snowmen episode:

Spoiler:

Why couldn't he just use his regen power on her to keep her alive? He can do it at will as seen in the last Pond episode where he healed River's wrist.

Spoiler:

The real question is why he didn't catch her in the Tardis like he's done before.

I thought about that too. I guess plot devices.